The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1887-02-10


doggerel and snubbad by those not
worthy to blacken your oldest shoes.
When the bridge at Ashtabula broke
and let down the most of the carload of pas
sengers to instant death Mr.. P P. Bliss was
seated on one side of the aisle of the car
writing down Christian song which he was
composing, ard on the ether side group OF
men were playing cards Whose landing
place in eternity would you prefer-that OF
2. P. Bliss, the gospel singer, or OF the card
players?
A great complaint comes from the theatres
about the ladies' high hats, because they OBJ
struct the view of the stage, and a lady re-
porter asked me the other day what thought
about it, and l told her that if the indecent
pictures of actresses i'll the show windows OF
Brooklyn and New York were accurate pict-
ures of what goes on in many of the theatres
night by night then it would be well if the
ladies' hats were a mile high, so as to COM
pletely obstruct the vision Ii professed
Christians go to such places during the week
no one will ever persecute them for their re-
ligion, for they have none, and they are the
joke of hell.
But let them live consecrated and Chris
tian life and they viii soon run against sneer-
ing opposition For a compromise Christian
Grated behavior grimace and caricature.
For the BODY, thanks to the God of free
America, there arc now no swords or fiery
| stakes, but for the souls of thousands of the
good, in fgurative sense, rack and gibbet
and 1orquemada. The symbol of the domes-
tic and social and private and public suffer
ing of a great multitude of Gods dear chill
dren, pillars of smoke.
What an exciting scene in India when dur
| ing the Sepoy rebellion a regiment of High
| landers came up and found the dead body of
one of Gen. Wheeleris daughters, who had
| been insulted and mauled and slain by the
| Sepoys So great was the wrath against
| these murderers that the Scotch regiment
sat down, and cutting off the hair of
this dead daughter of Gen. Wheeler they
divided it among them, and each one counted
the number of the hairs given him, and each
| took an oath, which was executed, that for
each hair of the murdered daughter they
| would dash out the life of miserable Sepoy.
| But as we look over the story of those who
| in ell ages have suffered for the truth, while
we leave vengeance to the Lord, let Us band
| together in one solemn VOW, one tremendous
OATH after having counted the host of the
martyrs, that for each one of those glorious
men and women who died for the truth, an
|
| live forever.
But as l already limited in the first SEN
tence of this sermon, nothing can be more
beautiful than the figures of smoke on a clear
sky. You can see what you will in the con
tour of this volatile vapor, now enchanted
castles, now troops of horsemen, now BAN
nered procession, now winged couriers, now
a black angel of wrath under spear Of the
70 nf 1icbt
from horizon to horizon the air is a picture
gallery filed with masterpieces of which God
is the artist, morning clouds of smoke born
in the sunrise, and evening clouds of smoke
| laid in the FURNISHED sepulchers of the sun
| set.
The beauty of the transfgured smoke Is a
| divine symbol of the beauty of the church. The
fairest of all the fair is she. Do not call those
prosecutors of whom | spoke the church.
| They are the parasites of the church, not the
church itself Her mission is to cover the
earth with supernatural gladness, to open
all the prison doors, to balsam all the wounds,
to moss all the graves, to burn up the night
in the fireplace of a great morning,
to change iron handouts into diamonded
wristets, to turn the whole race around,
and whereas it faced death, command
ing it: Fright about face for heaven. y
According to the number of the spires
of the churches in all our cities, towns and
neighborhoods are the good homes, the
worldly properties and the pure morals and
the happy souls.
Meet me at any depot the world over, and
with my eyes closed take me by the hand and
lead NE so that my feet will not stumble, and
without my once looking down, or looking on
the level take me to some high roof or tower
| and LAT, ma ha n b1rc cbac
will tell you the proportion of suicides, of
arsons, of murders, of thefts. Ac-
cording as the churches are numerous
are the crimes few. According as the churches
are few the crimes are numerous The most
beautiful organization the world ever saw OF
ever will see is the much maligned church
the friend of all good the foe of all evil, "faiI
as the moon and clear as the SUM-" Beauti
full in her author, beautiful in her mission
the heroine of the centuries, the bride OF
Christ, the queen of the nations. There art
hundreds of kindly institutions, some caring
for inebriates, some for the crippled some fol
the imbecle, some for the misled some for The
blind but the church is the mother of al
these kindly institutions There are asylums
American, or English, or Scotch, or Irish
or French, or German, or Itallan-but the
church spreads her mantle over all these, anG
will yet spread it over all nations. Hel
gates are beautiful, her songs are beautiful
her prayers are beautiful, her convocation
are beautiful, her work is beautiful. Al
kings and warriors will yet bow down at hel
affairs, all chains of serfdom be shattered
against her doorstep, all nations will yet fol
low her leading. How amiabe are th,
tabernaclesl How sacred thy altarsl How
glorious thy auditoriumsl So graceful, Sc
! oy1A rrl1i
up we cry out in regard to her: 'Who is sht
that cometh out of the wilderness like pillar.
of sInol1ef'
Men may desecrate it, as Cromwell did whe1
he stabbed his cavalry horses in St Paul's ca
thedral; or break off tho image of Christ, a
did the iconoclasts in York minister; or hur
against it august literary antipathies, as di,
Gibbon or plot it's overthrow, as do some il
every community whose pride and hate ant
/ debauchery are reproved by the Tel
Commandments which it thunders, ant
J the sermon on the mount which
breathes. But it will stand as long as th
Garth stands, the same unique and wonde
working and beatific and miraculous thin,
, for which God decreed it. Small wits ia,
their brain to say things that will put her a
disadvantage, but many of them will send TO
, its coincidence when dying, and their childrel
VIII De gathered up ulttef It's Deneu1cIlOD
, after the parental curse has been removed
Through her gates viii march ell the infiu
{ ences for good that shall ever reach ou
world Take her membership as o mass, no
speaking Of the acknowledged exceptions
! they arc the noblest, grandest, kindest, bes
t men and women of the ages. But for ther
{ the earth would long ago have been burne
Q out volcano. They havo been the salt tha
{ has kept the human raco from putrefaG
: ton insuferable either to human or o.
Y gelic olfactories. You lying and hype
9 critical world, shut up those slandcl
. about tho church Of Christ, an Institute
D which, far from being what it ought to bc
/, and never pretending to To perfect, is flH
S hundred times better than any other insttU
ton that tho world ever saw or ever dreane
: of. The highest honor Lever had, and th
/ ! highest honor / shall ever receive and t.
A. aya-A